"The book is a very personal (including many photos of his beautiful family) textbook/handbook by a particle therapy physicist who has about 45 years of experience honing his personal notes on the field through participation in many of the annual National Particle Therapy Schools as well as teaching at MGH and associations such as the AAPM and the Particle Therapy Cooperative Oncology Group (PTCOG). The author, Jay Flanz, is an MIT particle accelerator physicist who made the transition into a particle beam physicist at the start of the hospital-based proton radiotherapy era. There are few others who have seen this field's infancy and have stayed through to the present day...
The book begins by giving the reader both the evolution of particle accelerators and therapy as well as a very personal historical view by the author. The book then presents "get-up-to speed quickly" chapters on topics like setting requirements and components for particle therapy, radiation biology, basic review of the math needed, relativity, and charged particle interactions in matter with or without the presence of a magnetic field. While most medical physicists would skip over these chapters it can be argued to be extremely valuable for someone with an engineering background to read thoroughly anything that was not well known to them...The book is written for physicists, physical scientists, and engineers to give them the practical theory and knowledge so that "nothing goes wrong" for what are inarguably the most complex treatment systems ever devised. The book's title incorporates the word "safety" to emphasize that safety goes before all else. Many of his chapters end with a section called "What Could Go Wrong?"... If you are a medical physicist working in particle or insist your library order it this is a very useful book for physical scientists and engineers who are or want to be involved in particle beam radiation therapy."
-Thomas Rockwell Mackie, PHD, in Medical Physics, The International Journal of Medical Physics Research and Practice (July 2022)
"The book is a very personal (including many photos of his beautiful family) textbook/handbook by a particle therapy physicist who has about 45 years of experience honing his personal notes on the field through participation in many of the annual National Particle Therapy Schools as well as teaching at MGH and associations such as the AAPM and the Particle Therapy Cooperative Oncology Group (PTCOG). The author, Jay Flanz, is an MIT particle accelerator physicist who made the transition into a particle beam physicist at the start of the hospital-based proton radiotherapy era. There are few others who have seen this field's infancy and have stayed through to the present day...
The book begins by giving the reader both the evolution of particle accelerators and therapy as well as a very personal historical view by the author. The book then presents "get-up-to speed quickly" chapters on topics like setting requirements and components for particle therapy, radiation biology, basic review of the math needed, relativity, and charged particle interactions in matter with or without the presence of a magnetic field. While most medical physicists would skip over these chapters it can be argued to be extremely valuable for someone with an engineering background to read thoroughly anything that was not well known to them...The book is written for physicists, physical scientists, and engineers to give them the practical theory and knowledge so that "nothing goes wrong" for what are inarguably the most complex treatment systems ever devised. The book's title incorporates the word "safety" to emphasize that safety goes before all else. Many of his chapters end with a section called "What Could Go Wrong?"... If you are a medical physicist working in particle or insist your library order it this is a very useful book for physical scientists and engineers who are or want to be involved in particle beam radiation therapy."
-Thomas Rockwell Mackie, PHD, in Medical Physics, The International Journal of Medical Physics Research and Practice (July 2022)
"This book provides a nice overview of the fundamentals of particle therapy technology with emphasis on treatment safety. As particle therapy is an ever-evolving field, this book will be a valuable reference ensuring knowledge transfer from a subject matter expert to the next generation of particle therapy physicists. Readers will find this book useful for a deeper understanding of application of particles, mainly protons, in radiation therapy."
- Arash Darafsheh, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine
"This book provides a practical introduction to particle therapy technology, covering the fundamental aspects of beam production and delivery systems that serve to meet specific clinical requirements. Safe particle therapy delivery requires understanding basic principles of
operating the equipment, which components or parameters impact the output beam, and how they do that. The book aims to provide such
information and also pass down lessons learned to the next generation. This book is an important contribution for particle therapy professionals
worldwide. The intended audience includes professionals in the field of particle therapy, biomedical engineers, and practitioners in the field of beam physics. The book can also serve as a supplementary reference for medical physics graduate students and residents. The author is a highly
recognized expert in the field of particle therapy.
This book provides a nice overview of the fundamentals of particle therapy technology with emphasis on treatment safety. As particle
therapy is an ever-evolving field, this book will be a valuable reference ensuring knowledge transfer from a subject matter expert to the next
generation of particle therapy physicists. Readers will find this book useful for a deeper understanding of application of particles, mainly
protons, in radiation therapy."
-Arash Darafsheh, Ph.D. (Washington University, School of Medicine) in Doody's Core Titles Review 2023.
